


Even Gods Do

by Deifire



Category: Battlestar Galactica
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-15
Updated: 2009-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-02 23:19:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deifire/pseuds/Deifire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time she wakes to find the woman in the red dress sitting on the edge of her bed, she isn't quite sure how to process it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even Gods Do

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers through episode 3x09, "Unfinished Business." Title swiped from Thea Gilmore's contribution to the Where's Neil [Gaiman] When You Need Him? album.

The first time she wakes to find the woman in the red dress sitting on the edge of her bed, she isn't quite sure how to process it. Her first thought is that they are in danger. The Cylons have been on New Caprica for four days now, and it's already long enough that she knows that this woman--the one she finds she still insists on thinking of as the leader of these humans--is not happy to have them here.

So Laura Roslin sitting on the edge of her bed, dressed as if for a party, smiling down at her as she gently brushes an errant lock of sleep-tossed hair out of Six's eyes isn't something Six readily comprehends at all.

But she's had visions before.

"So," Roslin is saying, "You really think this is going to work? Occupying New Caprica, trying to co-exist with human beings? You really believe this is your part in God's plan?"

"I..." begins Caprica Six, then stops. She's had that other version of Gaius in her head for so long now, she's grown tired of trying to defend herself to own hallucinations. "What would you know of God's plan?"

"What do you think?" says Roslin, crossing her arms, still smiling that infuriating smile. "This is all going to turn out badly, you know."

Six is shaking her head. "You're not God. You're not even real. You're certainly not that schoolteacher woman Gaius doesn't think I know he's infatuated with."

"Of course not, love," says the vision in the red dress. "I'm just the messenger."

***

The first time Six fraks this particular figment of her imagination, she finds herself in a cabin in the woods next to a running stream. Laura Roslin, again in the red dress, is smiling at her, handing her a mug full of something warm. "Welcome," says Roslin.

"Where are we?" asks Six. This is nowhere she's ever been before in any lifetime.

"This is my home," says Roslin. "Well, the home that would have been someday, if you had never come here. It's not going so well, is it?"

It's not. The bombings from the human resistance are taking their toll, and the Cylons are constantly arguing amongst themselves these days, some urging that the only clear path is the complete and utter destruction of the human race, and why had they ever given up on that in the first place? Six can't go anywhere on New Caprica without feeling the eyes of human beings on her back. Eyes filled with the same combination of terror and loathing she is beginning to recognize from time to time in the gaze of her own lover.

Six is very tired.

"If you're the messenger," she asks the vision of Roslin. "What's the message?"

The Roslin vision sits beside her, puts its arm around her. "Only this: that you are God's child, and you are loved."

Six isn't sure what prompts her to do it. Maybe the feel of the Roslin vision's arm, which seems warm and real. Maybe just curiosity, to find out if this is the sort of thing a self-proclaimed messenger of God would allow. Maybe it's just that she's tired of talking around uncomfortable things, and picks the best, quickest way she knows to get someone's silence. She puts her mug aside, still untouched, then kisses Laura Roslin. Hard.

She's only slightly surprised to find Laura kissing her back.

By the time she's got the former President's dress pulled down past her shoulders and pushed up towards her waist, by the time said former President's fingers are making short work of the buttons on Six's own blouse, Six is no longer sure what game they're playing at, only that this woman, this vision, is clearly enjoying herself and giving as good as she gets.

When Six wakes up from this fantasy in her own bed, her own fingers bringing her to climax, she is confused. Had they been her own hands the whole time? Laura Roslin's? The hands of God?

No, she remembers. I'm only frakking the messenger.

Gaius, beside her, doesn't stir.

***

The first time Gaius catches her at it, Laura disappears suddenly, and Six is left by herself, pressed up against the wall, out of breath, hastily trying to re-arrange her skirt.

Gaius lifts an eyebrow, inviting explanation, but Six merely meets his eyes, sans expression, fixes herself, and walks away. She's considered telling him. She's well aware of his little crush, and wonders from time to time what his reaction would be. But explaining this would only involve other explanations, including the fact that there is also an ideal Gaius Baltar who lives in her head. One who also chides her and demands explanations that she can't give. One that she may even prefer to the flesh and blood man.

Gaius and Laura never show up at the same time, and aside from the fact that Six finds this disappointing, she wonders if it is significant.

Besides, these are her visions, and she wants to keep something of herself to herself.

***

The last time Six sees this version of Laura Roslin she has spent the day arguing with herselves--the other model Sixes, that is--over where they should go from here. She has never, in any lifetime, experienced this sort of confusion and discord with members of her own kind, and when she finds herself in the cabin in the woods again, she is glad for the respite.

This time sex is quick, incredible and nearly brutal. Six digs her nails into flesh that doesn't, strictly speaking, exist, as she climaxes, shuddering violently, calling the name of God. She wonders if they hear her in the real world.

After, Laura turns to face her, chin resting on one hand, smile almost taunting. "So," she says. "Is this what you wanted?"

For a moment, Six isn't sure if Laura means the frakking or the mess that is New Caprica and Cylon against Cylon. She finally decides to answer with some questions of her own. "If you're the messenger, can you tell me what God's plan is, if not this? Can you tell me where it went wrong? Can you tell me something other than what I know you're going to say about how God loves me?"

Laura is laughing now. "Oh, my dear," she says at last. "That wasn't what I was going to say at all. Not anymore."

"Then what...?"

"You know, even gods make mistakes."

And she is gone.

***

Six doesn't have visions anymore.

***

The first time Caprica Six considers approaching the real, live Roslin after that is not the first time she's observed her, of course. Six has been aware of the woman since the days of old Caprica, even.

Now Laura Roslin is merely a schoolteacher. Six is watching her laugh with her assistant. (Lover? There has been some speculation in Six's presence, but nobody has said for sure.) She observes the easy smiles on Roslin's face, even as she notes the worry lines around her eyes that never quite disappear. She watches their shadows play against the tent wall as day becomes dusk.

And then Roslin turns, and her eyes find Six. Those eyes become cold, as Roslin folds her arms over her chest. "Do you want something?" this Roslin asks.

Six straightens her spine, wipes all expression from her face, and walks away. This is not any sort of messenger of God, she thinks. This Laura Roslin is a human being, a fallen leader, and probably the sort who looks at you like you've committed blasphemy when you try to explain that there is only one God.

Besides, she isn't sure how she would answer that question.


End file.
